Week of December 4—What Do I Do With All These Ideas?!
Monday, December 5—Just Thinking Aloud
As I was talking to myself today (yes, I do that quite often) I said, “Not every one of your ideas has to be a good one.”
It should have gone without saying. But when I said the words aloud I realized how true they are. I brainstormed many ideas during PiBoIdMo. The number one rule of brainstorming is to write down every idea. The number two rule of brainstorming is to not judge any of the ideas you’ve brainstormed.
But when brainstorming ends, so do the rules. What I am doing this week is beginning to judge my ideas and to evaluate them. I need to go into this process knowing that not every idea is going to be a picture book. I need to realize that I will only write a few of these ideas into picture manuscript form. And of those, some will be abandoned before completion.
Is your stomach churning? Are you feeling separation anxiety from your beloved ideas? I know the feeling. But when you tell yourself, “Not every one of my ideas has to be a good one,” you give yourself permission to find the best ideas in the pile and turn them into masterpieces.
3 comments:
Great reminders!
I've found that some ideas that I love simply take a really long time to develop into anything, while others that I love from the start fizzle out almost right away. Makes it that much better when an idea really soars!
Rob, thanks for thinking aloud. Haven't touched my list (and yep, I put down EVERYTHING sans judgement), but need to start sifting!
Good points. It definitely helps unlock my creativity when I give myself permission to write down a lot of stinkers.
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